High Court orders home demolition of Palestinian charged with murder of soldier

12/02/2018

8:29:53 PM

Updated on

12/02/2018

8:29:58 PM

Written by

i24NEWS

An IDF soldier issues a demolition order for the home of a Palestinian suspect who killed two Israelis in a shooting attack on a Barkan factory last weekIDF

Israel’s High Court of Justice on Sunday upheld a decision by Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) to demolish the house of a Palestinian who killed an Israeli elite soldier during a raid in the West Bank in May.

The High Court rejected a petition by the family of Islam the Palestinian who killed Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, thus paving the way for the IDF to demolish the entire house.

Justice Yael Wilner rejected the family’s request on the grounds that the IDF does not have to wait with a demolition until a conviction has been made.

Lubarsky’s father welcomed the decision on Sunday, telling Kan public broadcaster that “The decision is a victory for sanity. We expect only more thing; imposing the death penalty on the terrorist who murdered Ronen.”

Islam Yousef Abu Hamid who killed Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky by dropping a heavy marble slab on him from a third story rooftop in May, was charged with murder by a military court shortly after Lubarsky was killed. However, Hamid has not yet been convicted.

The indictment against him said that he had dropped the slab on a group of soldiers conducting an arrest operation in retaliation for the arrest of one of his brothers earlier in the year and claimed that Hamid had attempted to tamper with evidence at the crime scene by sneaking back to the rooftop to wipe off his fingerprints of the marble stones dropped on the soldiers.

According to the Shin Bet, Hamid had been jailed in Israeli prison from 2004 to 2009 for committing terror activities on behalf of Hamas.

Israel has a policy of deterrence in which the homes of Palestinian terrorists who carry out attacks against Israelis are demolished, often overnight. Human rights groups say the measure amounts to collective punishment, with the suspects' families forced to suffer for others' acts.